The Industrial Condition of Women and Girls in Honolulu / A Social Study

There is a world movement in uplift work for women. Along with the rest of the world Hawaii is awaking to this call. In all lines of endeavor there must be a working plan. But first must be facts “writ large” and plain. In view of this interest and the desire to do a vital work for the wage-earning girls and women of Honolulu, the Trustees of Kaiulani Home secured the services of a trained investigator, Miss Frances E. Blascoer of New York City, to make a study of industrial conditions among the working girls of Honolulu and to present a plan for the organization of a Vocational Bureau here in the islands.

With the coming of Miss Blascoer the vision grew; a social survey was attempted, a survey which should be the means of presenting to citizens and social workers the real state of industrial and housing conditions; the character of the amusements offered to our community; facts anent dependent children; facts concerning the devastation of the social evil.

Religious, moral, intellectual, professional and vocational education; community hygiene; sanitary regulations; the beautifying of Honolulu; all these demand the concerted action of women and men. And then, too, there is the “call of the children” that comes with such strength of appeal from the findings of the Juvenile Court. The dependent child must be considered. The crimes that imperil the virtue of unprotected little girls must not be hidden. The fact must be faced of the incursion of Hawaii by large numbers of unmarried men and the accompanying menace to young women. Unquestionably, the conditions under which girls and women work should be known by the public.

Churches, associations, clubs, individual philanthropists, should have accurate knowledge of social conditions; that pauperizing may be avoided and that the waste of duplication in charitable work may be avoided. Undoubtedly more light is needed for the conduct of benevolent enterprises, perhaps not more giving, but more “efficient giving.”

Miss Blascoer’s report on the industrial conditions of women and girls, it is believed, will prove a basis for the working out of many programs for community betterment. May it prove rich in suggestion to the women of Honolulu. May all put shoulder to shoulder in the task of solving the industrial problem of the girls and women in our midst, and may it give to those who earnestly seek, a mission, a vision of great opportunities. To those who give and to those who receive, may there result a meeting, not at the “crossroads” of mistrust and suspicion, but on the “main traveled thoroughfare” which leads to mutual helpfulness. Hasten the day of its arriving!